Grilled Mackerel with Lemon and Dill

Steps

1. Pat the fillets dry, score the skin twice on each and season them. Oil the fish, then oil the hot grate as well — mackerel is the fish most likely to leave its skin behind on the bars.

   5 min

2. Lay them skin down over medium-hot coals and do not touch them for five to six minutes. Moving the fish early is what tears the skin.

   6 min

3. Turn them once with a wide spatula and give them three to four minutes more, until the flesh flakes at the thick end.

   4 min

4. Squeeze the lemon over and scatter the dill once they are off the grill. Lemon juice on the bars just steams away.

   2 min

Serving suggestion

With boiled new potatoes and a spoon of sour cream, or with the grilled vegetable platter off the same coals.

Storage

One day in the fridge. Cold grilled mackerel is good flaked into a beetroot salad.

Notes

Whole gutted mackerel works the same way and takes about six minutes a side, but the weight here counts fillets — a whole fish is roughly half bone and head.